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Baltimore: Where Revenue Collection Takes Priority Over Human Rights

Here’s a story that’s hard to believe: Baltimore City’s awful policies actively undermine the human right to water. Every year the city auctions off tax liens of homes and churches from people with enormous water bills -- or even incorrect water bills.

That’s right: when people can’t afford to pay water bills the city sells their homes and community spaces to pay for their unpaid bills at a fraction of the property’s worth. This is monstrous -- we need to spread the word to stop this shadowy, unethical nightmare.

An Incremental Victory

Background Information: In December, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered city agencies to halt tax sales of debt from water bills at owner-occupied homes. Though this was a first step in the right direction, many recognize that the order fails to protect non-owner occupied properties.

That means that under the Mayor’s order, the City could still take away forms of property like churches or rentals when residents or pastors fail to pay water bills (which can be as low as $350) that are often erroneous or unaffordably high.

Senator Robinson wanted to make sure Baltimoreans were protected from tax sale over unaffordable and incorrect water bills, regardless of election-year politics. You see, Delegate Washington, the sponsor of the House bill, is challenging one of the most powerful Baltimore senators, Senator Joan Carter Conway for the 43rd district Senate seat in June. While political considerations should never be a factor, many in Annapolis wondered if petty politics would win over the public good.

A Timeline of Political Shenanigans

This all seems like a good thing, right? Two great bills, two chances to correct the massive wrong on water tax liens sales. But keep your eye on the ball: the tricky maneuvering that happened next, and mostly behind the scenes, is as complicated as it is awful.

After the House passes Delegate Washington’s legislation unanimously (138-0) on March 6th, the bill’s next stop was the Senate Budget and Taxation committee. Remember a bill has to pass both chambers.

The Chairman of the B&T committee, Senator Kasemeyer, takes weeks before announcing that both bills (SB1098 and HB1409) will be held until the committee receives a letter of support from the Baltimore City Delegation.

The City Delegation, it turns out, is temporarily chaired and led by Senator Conway. She doesnt send a letter of support from the Baltimore Senate delegation until April 3rd -- but strangely half the senators had signed the document 2 weeks earlier. More importantly, the support comes with some big caveats: new amendments supported by Senator Conway and the Mayor’s office.

The final bill amendments proposed by Senator Conway (seemingly with Mayor Pugh’s advice) turn the bill into a mere two-year moratorium on tax sales of water-only liens for homeowner-occupied properties. It does not cover people who have any other outstanding taxes/fees (and for people who struggle to pay $350-$750 water bills, the likelihood of other outstanding charges is high) or churches. Worse: it requires the Department of Public Works to hire an outside firm to study its customer service and billing procedures.

A note: By requiring an outside firm to study the Department of Public works, the new amendments invite in companies like Suez and Veolia to study Baltimore’s water system. With an outside contract to study the billing system, they would then likely recommend for the City to privatize its water system as they have in other places.

This version of SB1098, then, passes through the Budget and Taxation committee with these terrible amendments.

Since these amendments move quickly and almost entirely behind the scenes, there is huge outcry from baltimore residents, advocates, and churches. Sen. Robinson then re-adds renter protection in yet another amendment being voted on in the full debate on the Senate floor. Places of worship were not re-included and the amendment requiring the Department of Public Works to hire an outside contractor to study the billing system also remained in place.

Now things get wild. The final Senate legislation passes the Senate on the last day of the Legislative Session and gets sent back to the House Ways & Means Committee. Remember the Del. Washington House bill that had already passed? Well, that is tabled. So since the House hasn’t passed this Senate version (S1098), the House has less than 10 hours to pass the bill through multiple committees.

The legislation passes yet another committee, and again passes the full House of Delegates at 9 pm, three hours before the Session is over. But guess what, the Senate has to pass the bill yet again.

The Senate accepts the House’s amendments at 10:45 pm, with just an hour and fifteen minutes to spare. It passes the bill. The bill now goes on to the Governor’s desk for his signature.

So What Does This All Mean for Baltimore?

Broken down: renters and homeowners who owe only water bills (no property taxes, no outstanding fines) are temporarily protected for the 2019 tax sale season. But that doesn’t cover a huge chunk of the population, who can still lose their homes or churches from tax lien sale due to unpaid water bills.

It’s a start, but it’s simply not good enough.

It’s also important to note the language used in an outside study of the Department of Public Works’ billing and customer service. Companies like Veolia and Suez (both currently circling around Baltimore) have used smaller contracts like what the Mayor wanted included in SB1098 to get a foot in the door, with the intention of expanding the scope of the contract to privatize the water system.

There are a number of biased and financially conflicted consultants that frequently recommend privatization and outsourcing as the solution. Baltimore residents demonstrated in 2014 that they don’t want Veolia or other privatizers getting involved in the city’s water system, and removing this language reaffirmed that.

We Can Never Give Up The Fight For Water

It remains unclear why Del. Mary Washington's original bill, which has garnered widespread public support from Baltimore residents and churches, failed to even make it to a vote in the Senate.

Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold & uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people’s health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.